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Hockaday vows to fight on

Leeds heads coach Dave Hockaday vowed to fight on following a fourth defeat in six outings as Bradford secured local bragging rights with a 2-1 victory in the Capital One Cup.

It was the League One side's first win over their West Yorkshire rivals in almost 28 years and Hockaday conceded that his position would likely come under further scrutiny after a third successive defeat.

The former Forest Green Rovers boss was given a stay of execution by club president Massimo Cellino following Saturday's 4-1 defeat at Watford, and looked a relieved man when Matt Smith put 10-man United ahead following Luke Murphy's first-half dismissal.

But a stunning equaliser from Billy Knott soon lifted the home crowd and again, and they were simply delirious when James Hanson prodded over the line with four minutes remaining to leave Hockaday in a precarious position.

He said: "I'm not a quitter, I'm a fighter. I feel as though not just myself, but the team at the moment, things just aren't going our way at the moment.

"But now we have to look at Saturday. They'll be in tomorrow, I'll be in tomorrow and it's on to the next game again.

"I don't have to say this but the players are 100 per cent behind the way we want to play. The president, everyone, they all want us to do well. We're getting a lot of bad press at the moment, some of it self inflicted, and we're making it very difficult for ourselves on the field at the moment.

"It's a tough game at times but we've got to pick ourselves up, nobody here is going to feel sorry for us tonight."

Bradford boss Phil Parkinson dedicated the win to the club's supporters after his beaten finalists of two years ago put in another impressive performance in front of the television cameras.

He said: "Without a doubt this is a big moment, we knew what this meant to the people of Bradford tonight and we said to the lads before we went out there.

"We knew how we wanted to play but it was very important to come off the pitch knowing we'd given everything, and created a little bit of history. We knew we'd not beaten Leeds at Valley Parade for over 80 years.

"Those fans have gone away tonight knowing we did everything tonight to make that happen for them."

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